Standing
by crusanite
Summary: 'If Tenten was surprised that she was the last one standing, it didn't register until much later.' Team Gai are captured during a mission. [NejiTen]
1. Prologue

If Tenten was surprised that she was the last one standing, it didn't register until much later. All thoughts and feelings had been put on standby.

Not a breath of wind disturbed the scene in the clearing, creating the strange illusion that time had screeched to a halt.

Her eyes didn't move from the bottomless pits bored into the black wood of the mask. The red patterns upon it swirled in her peripheral vision like flames, but still she forced herself to focus on the dark holes which marked the location of the man's eyes.

A drop of blood fell from her thumb into the dirt.

The man slowly raised his free arm in a placating gesture, and Tenten coiled in response, jerking her thumb to hover threateningly over the battered scroll at her feet.

"Now, there's no reason we can't be rational," said the man. "I see little point in continuing, do you?"

Tenten pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. From the tone of his voice there was no reason why she shouldn't trust him. Why shouldn't she just lick her thumb clean, dust off her pants, and leave this whole messy situation behind? And yet she remained perfectly still.

"We don't have time for this," drawled the other masked man, or woman, rather, if the pitchiness of their voice was anything to go by. "Just kill her and be done with it!"

A sudden shuffling somewhere to her left caught Tenten's attention. The woman whom had spoken earlier grappled briefly with a wriggling mass of limbs beneath her, finally stilling him with a sharp kick to the jaw. She trapped his wrists beneath her heel, snarling as she curled her fingers into his hair and ground his face into the dirt.

"Come now," continued the man calmly, ignoring the tussle behind him. Tenten's focus snapped back to the mask in front of her. "Just give us what we need-" Her thoughts immediately flew to the tiny scroll hanging about her neck, "- and we'll be on our way."

Again, when Tenten remained immobile, the man seemed to lose a little of his patience. He squeezed the listless figure looped under his forearm until it groaned. Loose limbs swung sickeningly as the man bounced the body in his grip.

"After all, no one wants to be the cause of the death of their teammates, now do they?"

Tenten's breath caught in her throat. The man chuckled, hearing that he had struck a chord. He motioned his free hand forward again. "Hand it over, sweetheart."

Tenten felt her fingers twitch towards the chain at her neck.

"That's it..."

She twisted her fingers through the chain and pulled. It gave with a light, metallic tinkle.

"Good girl."

Tenten gingerly extended her arm, her eyes flickering to the little blue scroll swinging from her fist. It had taken weeks to retrieve. All that time...

...wasted.

The masked woman swore as her charge began to squirm again. He had bucked her off of his back, writhing like an eel to release his wrists from the trap of the arc of her foot. With a sharp jerk of her ankle and a short string of muffled cracks, his wrists suddenly hung limp. Her captive gave a strangled gasp. The woman hissed in pleasure.

Tenten tore her eyes away, her shoulders slumping. She dropped the scroll onto the ground before her.

The man grunted in approval and shook free his arm of his captive, who hit the ground with a nasty crunch. The man strode forward to claim his prize.

Then Tenten was on her feet, her fingers a blur of movement as she formed hand signs faster than the eye could see. Black marks scorched the ground in a circle of symbols around the little scroll.

"NO!"

The man lunged forward, his paws grasping desperately, but to no avail.

A sudden puff of smoke, and the symbols and the scroll were gone.

Silence.

Tenten glowered triumphantly at the man, her hand still in the form of the last seal she had performed to snatch away the masked duo's impending victory.

He was still for a moment. Then, in two swift strides, he was directly in front of Tenten. He pulled back his fist and slammed it into the side of her head, the force of the impact throwing her against the tree behind her.

Then: nothing.


	2. Chapter 1

It was dark. Very dark.

Tenten blinked groggily, black shapes slowly coming into focus. Her eyelid stuck to her cheek a little longer than usual, and for a hazy moment she wondered why. A careful flex of her wrists and ankles was answered by the clinking of chains: so, her arms were shackled above her head, her feet to the floor. Wonderful, she thought glumly. As her vision realigned and her senses slowly returned to her, the kunoichi gradually became hyperaware of an odd tickling sensation above her eyebrow. Something warm was trickling down her forehead. A drop of the 'something', heavy and hot, fell into her open eye and she winced. A vague memory crossed her mind. A fight. A tremendous crack to the-

She choked.

Blood. The something dribbling down her face was blood. Her blood.

And then her head throbbed and the pain was excruciating and her ears roared, and Tenten was very nearly sure that she was about to pass out again.

She might have done so too, if something in front of and very close to her didn't shift ever so slightly and set her entire body alight with nerves.

"Tenten," rasped the something in front of her. A very familiar something, she noted with a pang of relief. A someone, in fact.

"Neji?" she squinted, peering forward. She could make out two luminous pale spots in the darkness. They flickered. Eyes?

"Are you alright, Tenten?"

Now that she was looking, yes… Perhaps she could make out some features… A barely distinguishable splash of grey: his shirt. A chink of metal, a flash of light: was he chained as she was? As she continued to blink, her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and she began to take in her surroundings.

From what Tenten could perceive, the cell was in the shape of an 'L': to her left, a little moonlight filtered through a sudden cavity in the wall upon which she was chained, presumably an entrance alcove. Then adjoined the narrow rectangular space which took up the majority of the room. The floor and walls were made of smooth, unevenly shaped rocks. There were no windows, she noticed with a sinking feeling in her stomach. This was not a room that was designed to be easily escapable.

"Tenten!"

She started, her wandering gaze snapping back to the little pools of white nearly two meters across from her. Her eyes had now adjusted to the point that she could even make out his facial expression: his lips were drawn, and he narrowed his eyes, eyeing her with what could only be perceived as worry. With a jolt, she realised he had asked her a question.

"Oh! I guess-Well, I'll live." Her voice was thick and gravelly from disuse: she cringed a little at the sound of it. Her eyes raked over his thoroughly dishevelled appearance, and she doubted that she looked any better. His clothes were covered in grime and what looked suspiciously like dried blood, but he seemed to not be in any immediate danger. "You?"

Neji rolled his shoulders in a small shrug.

"I'll live," he echoed. Tenten flashed him a grim smile, one that he did not return. Rather, his eyes shot upwards. Upwards towards his hands. Tenten's gaze followed, and she drew a sharp breath, something in her chest wrenching painfully at the sight.

His wrists were dark and violently swollen, the inflamed flesh straining against the confines of the shackles. His hands shook, if only slightly (due to what Tenten suspected must have been monumental self-control), and it was then that she noticed the thin trails of sweat trickling down his forearms.

"Neji-" Tenten was swiftly cut off.

"However," continued Neji bitterly, his eyes darkening. "I doubt very much that I'll be of much use should we be planning to escape."

Tenten stared, her brow creasing. How long had they been down here? They.

"Where's Lee?" she asked suddenly, tossing her head from side to side in a desperate attempt to locate her bushy-browed friend. The last time she had seen Rock Lee he had been crumpled in a scarily still little pile on a forest floor. Icy-cold dread ran down her spine, and that roaring in her ears was back again. "What happened? Is he alright? He's not-"

"Calm down," said Neji quietly. "Lee is here." He jerked his head to the right. Tenten craned her neck, squinting into the darkest corner of the cell.

Sure enough, she could make out the third member of her squad, bound to the wall as she and Neji were. He was very still, but to her immense relief Tenten could make out the gentle rise and fall of his shoulders. The fearful coiling in her stomach dissipated somewhat.

"Thank goodness," whispered the kunoichi. "Lee," she hissed. "Lee, can you-"

"He's unconscious," muttered her much more responsive companion opposite. "I've been trying to rouse you both all night. I was very…" His opaque eyes bored neat little holes of something unplaceable into hers, as he seemed to struggle choosing the correct word. "…concerned." Tenten fidgeted sheepishly.

"Sorry," she mumbled, shuffling her feet.

When he continued to stare at her Tenten became increasingly uncomfortable. Something, she noted grumpily, which she'd added long ago to the extensive list of Things That Bothered Her About Neji Hyuga: excessive use of eye contact. Given that this was now one of the top offending articles, Tenten had to admit that the list had shortened dramatically since their genin years. Though "constant condescension" and "monosyllabic responses" still roamed free, "unprovoked assholery" and "side-branch angst" barely ever appeared these days. Hell: upon occasion he was even enjoyable company. And though Tenten had fiercely insisted that they were friends from the very beginning (before she'd understood the subtle difference between friends and team mates), years of constant company and a begrudging acceptance of each other's' shortcomings had gradually affirmed the fact, perhaps, that they were indeed friends. Tenten loosed a silent prayer for that. She dropped her eyes to the shackles about her feet, fishing for a change of subject.

"I'm assuming," she huffed. "That these are infused with chakra."

"You assume correctly," said Neji wryly.

"So, little chance of escape by brute force, then."

"Indeed."

"Can we perform seals?" Neji shot her a pointed look, and Tenten blanched, glancing guiltily at his useless hands. "Right," she amended quickly. "Let's- I mean, I'll have a go at that, then."

However, their captors appeared to have already considered that potential route: her hands had been positioned so that her palms faced away from each other, and no amount of finger flexibility could counter the fact that, anatomy-wise, performing hand seals was impossible.

That didn't stop her from pulling every muscle in her hand from trying though.

After ten minutes of straining and grumbling and the occasional dropped curse, Tenten let loose a tremendously frustrated puff of air, blowing her bangs out of her eyes.

"That would be a no, I take it." Well. At least imprisonment hadn't dulled Neji Hyuga's dry wit. Tenten glared at him.

"So what now, genius?" she grumbled, slumping against the wall.

"I don't know," he said, so softly she almost didn't hear.

Tenten's head snapped up. Of all the responses she'd been expecting, sheer unbridled painful honesty was not one of them. She stared at him, long and hard. His eyes, previously focused on her, were glazed and distant. His brow was furrowed, and the kunoichi thought she could detect the faintest wavering of frighteningly uncharacteristic uncertainty in his expression.

He didn't know? The acclaimed prodigy had been down here, alone with nothing but his thoughts (and in severe pain; Tenten quickly wiped that notion from her mind) for hours and hadn't thought of a means- any means- by which to spring them free? At first, Tenten was furious. As the leader of their team, it was Neji's responsibility to call the shots, formulate plans, make sure things like this didn't happen to them- The kunoichi gave herself a mental slap. No. This wasn't Neji's fault. How horribly unfair of her to think, for a split second, that this had been nothing more than a combination monstrous wave of bad luck and a failure of their team to perform to their usual standards. The situation at hand was as much her fault as it were Neji's as it were Lee's. And if the blame was shared, then it needn't play a part in her thoughts at all. They were here together, and (for now) they were all still alive. And that was already more than she could have hoped for.

She jiggled her chains to attract Neji's attention, whose gaze had been wandering somewhere over her shoulder.

"Hey," she said firmly, looking him dead in the eye. "We'll figure a way out of this." Neji frowned at her.

"Hn." Ah, "monosyllabic responses". She fought the urge to register another offense from the List.

"I mean it! With all of us together, we've got a real chance." Tenten had no idea where her sudden Lee-esque optimism sprung from, but suddenly it felt very important to keep her companion from teetering over the edge of despair. "After all, we're still alive, aren't we?"

Neji blinked. "We were left alive to be tortured for information on the village," he answered flatly. "To use us against each other to get what they want: the location of the scroll. And then, after they have everything they need, they will kill us." Tenten felt something in her chest deflate.

"Well fine," she snapped, tossing her hair out her eyes indignantly. "Think like that if you want. Rot away in your own miserable thoughts, Neji Hyuga. I for one intend to get out of here alive, without betraying my village or giving up that scroll, with Lee, and with you: even if I have to do it without your help."

When Neji remained silent after her little outburst, Tenten chanced a disgruntled peek at the shinobi. He was staring at her again, with the most peculiar expression on his face, as if he'd never seen her before.

"What?" she huffed. When he didn't answer, Tenten felt a surge of smugness as she realised just how smartly she'd put him in his place. "Don't like having the orders given to you for a change?" she asked haughtily.

He snorted, tilting his head so that his face was hidden behind a curtain of long, dark hair.

"Hey!" Tenten scowled, ringing her chains again. "Don't _ignore_ me-" Neji shot her a long, shrewd look through his shifting hair. He blinked slowly, smirking. Tenten pouted, narrowing her eyes at him.

A silence ensued, in which Tenten refused to look at her team mate for the sake of her stinging pride. Then-

"That was clever."

Tenten eyed him warily.

"What was?" she ventured.

Neji cocked his head slightly, regarding her seriously. "Transporting the scroll, of course." Tenten flushed a little: his tone suggested that his implication had been obvious. Which it hadn't of course, to anyone but himself, she noted crossly.

"Well I wasn't about to hand it over," she riled, giving him an indignant look.

"I did not say that you were." Oh, thought Tenten, the tips of her ears suddenly becoming quite hot. Perhaps it was merely a compliment after all.

"I… Thanks," she murmured. He blinked at her. After a brief pause, Tenten opened her mouth to-

"We should not discuss the recipient, Tenten. They could be listening."

Tenten frowned.

"But-" he shot her a warning glance, and her jaw snapped shut.

Another silence.

"I hope Lee's alright…" she whispered softly, her eyes wandering to the dark, silent corner of the cell. Neji hummed in agreement.


	3. Chapter 2

"Tenten, wake up."

"Nrgh," she replied, burying her face deeper into the crook of her shoulder.

"Tenten."

Tenten squeezed her eyes shut further, scowling. She had been having a good dream. Though at this point, it was too late to remember exactly what it had been about. Her team had been in it, and Gai-sensei… He was laughing about something, and she was too… Hadn't the whole team been laughing? Lee had nearly been in tears from it; even Neji had been chuckling, which had made her laugh even harder, because Neji never laughed. She had nearly run out of air from laughing so hard, but her lungs weren't burning, her head just swirled in a pleasantly numb sort of way… And then it had started to get dark, and she'd felt warm all over and suddenly very tired… Dark… Besides, it was still dark out! Surely training could wait for five more minutes-

"Tenten!" He appeared to be losing his patience. Good, she thought gruffly, nuzzling her upper arm. Let him rot.

_"Rot away in your own miserable thoughts, Neji Hyuga. I for one intend to get out of here alive, without betraying my village or giving up that scroll, with Lee, and with you: even if I have to do it without your help."_

She jerked awake, blinking rapidly as the pleasant fogginess of sleep instantly dissipated. A wave of dizziness washed over her. Tenten's head reeled as her body remembered that she was not, in fact, lying horizontally in her wonderfully warm and comfortable bed back in Konoha, but hanging vertically against a cold stone wall in a cell somewhere in... Well, to be honest, she had no idea. Her arms buzzed unpleasantly, and she grimaced as she wiggled her fingers to try and wake her phantom limbs.

"Whazizit?" she asked blearily, arching against the wall in a vain attempt to stretch her cramped back. "Whazwrong? Z'Lee awake?"

Across from her, Neji was scrutinizing her carefully. There were heavy bags under his eyes: he hadn't slept. Her jaw tightened as the kunoichi noted painfully his shallow breathing, the sallowness of his skin and the bead of sweat crawling down the curve of his cheek. His mangled wrists were, impossibly thought Tenten, even more swollen than before, and Neji's hands were shaking noticeably now. They had also begun to take on a purplish hue.

"No," he said in a drawn, quiet voice. Tenten's chest ached, whether from the news that Rock Lee was still unconscious or the barely concealed agony in Neji's voice she didn't know. Both, probably. "No he isn't. However, I have had a good look and as far as I can tell, internally there is no life-threatening damage."

She swallowed the lump in her throat, nodding.

"Are you-"

"You shouldn't have fallen asleep, Tenten," interrupted Neji, his eyes darkening as he followed the bloodied curve of her hairline. "With a head injury like that you may not have woken up."

Tenten frowned.

"I'm fine," she insisted. "If we should be worrying about anyone's well-being it should be yours, Neji, you-"

"I don't need your pity, Tenten," he said icily, and Tenten bristled. "We should be focusing on-"

"I'm not giving you pity!" she hissed. "And as for what we should be focusing on, first and foremost it should be the health of our team mates!" Neji glared at her hollowly. "Now will you quit being a stubborn ass, and stop pretending like nothing's the matter?"

Neji opened his mouth to retort, but a distant clang, followed by swiftly loudening footfalls brought their spat screeching to a halt.

Words from their conversation the night before suddenly raced through her head.

_"We were left alive to be tortured for information on the village, to use us against each other to get what they want: the location of the scroll. And then, after they have everything they need, they will kill us."_

So, it was beginning, was it. Tenten's insides turned to ice. A mental scolding didn't thaw them. Her wide, frightened eyes connected with Neji's for a heart-stopping instant. And it was funny, because for a split second she could swear she felt a little better and much, much worse at the same time.

The door was thrown open with a heavy thud. Neji and Tenten winced as the room was suddenly bathed in dull, orange light.

Tenten blinked ferociously, trying to adjust her eyes as quickly as possible to the abrupt change in lighting. She didn't want to miss anything, or be caught unawares should-

Dainty footfalls echoed to her left as someone entered the cell and approached them.

Shit. Tenten willed her eyes to get used to the light already, hurry up, before anything happened. She tensed in apprehension as the footsteps came to a halt barely a meter away from her, the hairs on the back of her neck quivering for signs of attack as if to make up for her shadowy vision.

Nothing happened.

Finally, the masked woman swum into Tenten's view, a paper lantern swinging from her elbow. Tenten's breath caught in her throat, but the woman didn't so much as give an indication that she'd even realised the kunoichi was there. She clucked her tongue impatiently, allowing the lantern to slide down her forearm and onto the floor with a dry crinkle.

"Oh dear," she crooned, taking a long, slow step towards a suddenly stiff Neji. Tenten watched on warily. A vein ticked in his forehead, and his jaw was set. His eyes were fixed on the mask and Tenten noticed that he had somehow managed to regulate his breathing. Impressive, she thought grimly, given the state he'd been in earlier.

The woman suddenly grasped Neji's chin, dragging him towards her masked face. Neji snarled as he attempted to tug himself free of her grip but the woman merely chuckled, the extent of his weakness painfully apparent.

"Oh dear," she repeated wistfully. "What a pretty face! Perhaps I went a little rough on you yesterday, hmm?" Neji glowered at her. "I usually end up breaking my toys. Not before I'd had my fill of fun with them, though," she trailed a gloved finger under the curve of his eye. "Don't you worry about that."

Something jerked deep in the pit of Tenten's stomach. She decided that she didn't much appreciate the woman's tone or her distinct lack of boundaries, and pleasant images of large pointy objects being forced through the eye holes of that mask wafted through Tenten's mind.

The kunoichi scowled as the masked woman leaned further into a helpless (though, to his credit, thoroughly disgusted) Neji.

"I suppose," the woman mused, twirling a piece of her captive shinobi's hair between her fingers, addressing the room. "That you know why you're here?"

When both Neji and Tenten remained silent, the woman unwound herself from Neji. As she approached her, Tenten fought the urge to shrink into herself, even just a little.

"You've stuck a bit of a thorn in our side with your showy little tricks, I will admit," said the woman softly, titling her head to the side as she spoke directly to Tenten. "And I'm afraid that it doesn't pay to steal from us. That you managed to do so in the first place I still have a hard time believing. Your first mistake was bringing _that_," she waved a hand carelessly in the directing of Lee, and Tenten's fists clenched. A non-verbal warning from Neji ensured that she kept silent, however. The woman didn't seem to notice, and continued to drawl. "Can he even use ninjutsu? Honestly. How irresponsible and cruel, really, giving him a headband. Has the Hidden Leaf really become so desperate that this is what's passed off as a shinobi these days? What a tragedy." She arched her neck so that the mask was inclined towards Neji. "I'll admit that he has some skill. It's such a shame that it's wasted on making sure that you two dead-weights stay alive. If only you were actually useful, perhaps you wouldn't be in this mess."

"Why do you wear that mask?" Tenten couldn't sit quietly a moment longer. "Is it to hide all of your warts and wrinkles, old hag?"

That earned her a smack to the face that made her see stars.

"Obviously you don't understand quite how serious your situation is, little girl," hissed the masked woman, digging her fingers into the base of one of Tenten's buns and wrenching her head painfully to the side. Tenten yelped. "Perhaps I should remind you." The kunoichi's heart hammered in her chest and she squeezed her eyes shut, anticipating a beating.

A tinkle of chains from across the room caused the masked woman to stiffen.

"My goodness," jeered the woman. "Could it be that I've found a weak point already?" This caused Tenten to crack open an eyelid. Weak point? And then blinding pain erupted in the side of her skull as the woman threw Tenten's head against the wall, releasing her in the process. Tenten spluttered, shaking herself. The room hadn't quite stopped spinning yet, but she managed to fix her eyes on that horrible woman stalking across the cell, who was laughing unpleasantly as she approached a strangely ruffled Neji. "How about it, dear?" cooed the masked woman, pressing herself up against the shinobi's side once more. He kept his focus firmly on the floor, refusing to look anywhere else. "Have you got anything you'd like to share with us?" Neji said nothing.

After a long silence, the woman hissed impatiently.

"I wonder…" she mumured, running her hands across Neji's chest, along his collar bone, and ever so slowly up his arms. He shuddered, and the woman snickered softly.

Once again, Tenten's thoughts shifted to all things sharp and pointy being jammed down the masked woman's throat. A funny sort of rage vibrated through her, right down to her toes. In fact, they didn't even have to be sharp and pointy, she thought savagely. Blunt and rounded would do nicely. She imagined digging spoons into the eyeholes of that stupid mask, scooping about in the dark for an eyeball or two-

A strangled gasp of pain broke through her thoughts like a white hot knife, and Tenten bit her tongue. The woman's hands had found their way to Neji's shattered wrists. She was dragging her fingers only very lightly across the bruised skin, but it was enough for Neji's eyes to snap shut and his jaw to clench.

"It's not too much for you, is it dear?" sneered the woman, whose legs had somehow twisted their way through Neji's again, her mask pressing up against his ear. "Don't they say a little suffering is good for the soul?"

And Tenten could do nothing but swallow her cry of horror as the woman's hands suddenly clenched about Neji's wrists and squeezed. Hard.

Tenten had never heard her team mate scream before, and she never wanted to again.

After what seemed like an age, the woman released her vice grip and Neji slumped against her, shaking violently. His head sagged and disappeared behind his hair, which shifted slightly with each unsteady exhale. The masked woman hushed him gently and ran her fingers through his hair.

"Don't close those pretty eyes of yours," she said softly. "I want a good long look at them before I go."

Never in her life had Tenten wanted to hurt a person as much as she did this woman.

Suddenly the mask was facing the kunoichi. Tenten quivered with unrestrained fury, pouring every drop of malice she could muster into her glare. The woman clucked.

"If looks could kill," she said. "Too bad." And then her fingers were crawling back up his arms and Tenten's gut twisted in fear and there was a roaring in her ears that hadn't been there before and-

She blinked. The masked woman was picking up the lantern and smoothing out her skirt. Tenten gaped at her, her eyes bulging after the retreating figure.

"The best methods of torture are not the physical ones," came the venomous voice. "Thank you for making my job so much easier." The door slammed shut and the light was suddenly extinguished.

Darkness. Again.

Tenten glowered into the blackness, dumbfounded. For the life of her she had no idea what the woman had meant.

And so she waited impatiently for her eyes to once again become accustomed to the low light. Slowly, Neji reappeared before her, hanging as limp as Lee from his shackles. His chains tinkled softly as he continued to tremble.

"Neji?" she asked quietly. No response.

She shrieked in shock when a tremendous grinding sound suddenly shook the room, and the chains holding her upright suddenly gave. She pitched forward, landing painfully on her elbows and knees. She distinctly heard two muffled thuds in the dark beside her, and she knew that the rest of her team had joined her on the floor.

Tenten rolled into a kneeling position, tugging gingerly at her chains. Sure enough, she remained bound to the wall, but for some mysterious reason they had been given a small amount of let on their shackles. A finger of trepidation slid through Tenten's thoughts, but she quickly pushed it to the back of her mind. For now, she supposed she should make the most of the brief respite.

Looking up, she was disappointed to see that Lee had still not shown the slightest sign of consciousness, though this was not altogether surprising. She had hoped that the fall might have roused him… She frowned, shaking her head. Never mind. Thankfully, he seemed to have fallen into a physically comfortable position.

So Tenten found herself on her hands and knees crawling forward in the darkness towards a pale lump of cloth across the room. Neji had fallen on his side, his back to her. His hair spilled out on the floor behind him, some of the ends still loosely bound by a white strip of cloth. Tenten started a little when her fingertips met silky strands instead of hard stone. Still she pressed forward, being careful not to catch any of his hair in her chains.

"Neji-" Her move to place a hand on his shoulder was cut short. Tenten glared at her shackles, yanking on the chains. No good: she could go so further. She sighed huffily, sitting back on her haunches.

"Neji!" she tried again. He may not even be conscious, she thought glumly. At that thought, it suddenly became very important for Tenten not to be left alone. Panic fluttered briefly in her chest. Then she had an idea: shuffling around so that her back faced Neji's, Tenten propelled herself backwards using her feet. Sure enough, with her hands and legs extended towards the wall upon which she was chained, Tenten could lean back far enough so that her head could rest upon his ribs. Rather than do this, the kunoichi craned her neck to peer over the bulk of his body.

She started when she noticed that his eyes were open. They were glassy and curiously wet, almost as if- Tenten instantly dismissed that thought. Not only was it ridiculous, but it bothered her to think of the possibility. Half of his face was covered by a curtain of hair. The shinobi's breathing was still ragged, his arms were still trembling.

"Neji?" tried Tenten again. She cursed herself at how weak and small she sounded.

Neji blinked, sighed shakily, and then Tenten found her head being bumped aside as he sat up.

A few moments of quiet scuffling later, she found herself sitting cross-legged almost comfortably across from him. Or rather, his back.

Tenten chewed the inside of her cheek before addressing his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" she tried weakly, leaning to the side in an attempt to gage his reaction. Obviously not, she chided herself.

Nothing.

Well. Stupid questions don't deserve-

"She set my wrists back into place. Now that they have blood flowing back to them they have a chance of healing without any long-lasting damage."

Neji's voice was quiet and strained, and contained what Tenten suspected was a heavy lacing of disgust.

Tenten frowned. The kunoichi didn't need to ask who "she" was.

_"The best methods of torture are not the physical ones."_

Tenten supressed a shiver of dread.

A rustle of clothes and a clink of metal caused her to look up from her lap. Neji was now sitting facing her. After a moment he blinked up at her.

"If she touches you again I swear I'll kill her."

Neji arched his eyebrows in surprise, and Tenten bit her lip to quell any further embarrassing outbursts. Just as her cheeks started to burn up, Neji added delicately:

"Hn."

Tenten could have cried for joy.

* * *

**AN: **_Never fear: author's notes will always be short. _

_Oh god. My chapters are getting longer. _

_I need to see someone about how much I got into writing that torture scene. A criminal court, perhaps._

_Mysterious masked people have no names because they don't deserve them. That bitch._

_Reviews make my ego purr. Thank you, mysterious person known only as "I like angst" (gee whizz, I wonder what you're here for)._

_Thanks for reading: I love you alllllllllllllllllllll._


	4. Chapter 3

Hours passed, and they were becoming increasingly worried about Rock Lee.

Once, Neji had suddenly jerked his head towards the taijitsu expert without warning in mid conversation, causing Tenten to nearly jump out of her skin. As it turned out Lee's arms had merely shifted in his sleep.

Another time, Tenten definitely thought that she'd heard him stir: he had mumbled something, she was sure of it. However, Neji hadn't heard anything, and so for a good half an hour or so they had watched him in silence to see if he would speak again: not a peep.

Tenten's mind was aflame with worry, horrible possibilities bouncing about the inside of her skull like bingo balls. What if he didn't wake up? What if they were down here so long that he'd starve? Without food in his condition he would do nothing but grow weaker. When she'd voiced her concerns, Neji reminded her that the same was true of them, and that given the lack of food Lee's state of consciousness was actually an advantage. That had stumped her for a while. She hadn't even thought of that.

However Tenten had continued to plague an increasingly irritated Neji with hypotheticals about Lee's health until he had threatened to ignore her for as long as they remained imprisoned if she didn't shut up. So she did. For her revenge she considered irking Neji further by mentioning just how frequently his own eyes flickered to that darkest corner of the cell when he thought she wasn't looking, but Tenten knew better than to call her team mate out on something that so closely resembled feelings.

As for Neji's physical condition; that had greatly improved due to what Tenten considered to be a stroke of genius on her part. After watching her companion wince several times by attempting something so simple as to shift his arms, she'd had enough.

Neji twitched in surprise as, quite suddenly, Tenten had slid very close to his back and was tugging insistently on his skirt.

"What are you-"

"Just, turn around, would you!"

The shinobi silently obeyed, his chains clinking softly as he gingerly turned about on the spot to face Tenten, who was busy fumbling about her feet. She muttered a curse under her breath. The heavy shackles were making her job very difficult and her hands clumsy. At last, she had accomplished her task: Tenten had removed her shoes, now gripped tightly in her hands, and was watching him expectantly.

"Hands, please," she said firmly. Neji quirked an eyebrow.

"What-"

"Neji!" she scoffed, dragging her knees across the floor until they bumped his. She patted her lap, ignoring the sudden heat creeping up her neck. "Come on: I think this'll help. For now, anyway. Besides, I can't reach over there." She rang her chains for emphasis: she had indeed reached the end of her let. Eyeing her suspiciously, Neji hesitantly lifted his bruised wrists and gently placed his useless hands on the curve of her thigh.

Tenten set to work immediately, her mouth set in a firm line as she concentrated on bumping his injured limbs as little as possible. Despite her best efforts to keep her touch light and Neji's to mask the pain, it didn't take long at all before his hands were instinctively flinching away from hers. Tenten sighed impatiently, but didn't look up.

"I'm sorry, I know it hurts. I'm nearly done."

"Hn," said Neji stiffly.

After a few more moments of muffled grunts of discomfort and mumbled apologies, Tenten sat back to admire the results of her latest brainwave: she had slipped Neji's still-swollen fingers through the strap of her shoe, the stiff rubber sole extending behind his palm and thus bracing his wrist. She had done the same with the other.

Neji carefully lifted his hands back into his lap. He flexed his fingers, testing. Then he looked up at Tenten with wide eyes.

"I would have strapped them up with, uh, part of my sleeve or something," babbled Tenten, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand so that she didn't have to look at him. "But I don't know when _she'll_ be back, and then we wouldn't be able to unwrap them in time before she got here and then she'd probably just take them off and destroy them or something and then we'd have nothing to use to keep your wrists straight, and I wouldn't have any shoes which would be really annoying when we escape because what if I stepped in a puddle or something (that'd be horrible) or worse, stepped on something sharp: that could slow us down, but that point is that these should provide a bit of support for the bones so that they can get better faster and not cause you so much pain-"

"Tenten-"

"-but we'll have to be quick when we hear that door go, because I think we've only got about thirty seconds to get them off again. In the meantime though I hope they help-"

"Tenten-"

"-and I'm so sorry: I've been studying those scrolls that Sakura gave me and she's been trying to help me get the hang of this healing stuff, but it's so frustrating! I'm just awful at it, and Sakura gets so sick of me sometimes-"

"Tenten-"

"-and then I'll be reading them before training and you're absolutely no help at all because you took one look at them and got it instantly and so now you're the only one on this team with anything close to medical skills and it's just so ridiculous because you can't do a thing with your hands like this and if I was any better I could be so much more helpful and-"

"Tenten!"

The kunouchi's mouth froze in a small "o". Neji was glaring at her. And then she realised that he'd been trying to speak and she was mortified.

"Tenten, listen to me," said Neji sternly. "You've been very helpful. Even if you could manipulate healing chakra, healing my wrists would do little good in the long run because our captors would notice, my wrists would probably be broken again and they would do goodness knows what to us as punishment. Your solution is ingenious. Thank you."

Tenten blinked at him, quite taken aback. He was right, of course, but what had really stunned her was the smile. It had been small and brief, but right at the end of his speech he had really, genuinely smiled. She stared.

"You're… You're welcome," said Tenten awkwardly. Neji nodded vaguely.

They had fallen into a comfortable silence after that.

Now, upon Tenten's insistence, Neji was taking a well-deserved nap. Left alone to her thoughts, Tenten's knees were drawn up to her chest, her chin resting atop her folded hands. She watched him absent-mindedly: his back was against the wall, his wrists (still in her shoes) aligned neatly in his lap. His head and since dropped to his chest, which rose and fell gently as he breathed. Tenten was pleased to see him sleeping so peacefully: it had been days, as far as she knew, since he'd last slept. After all, it had been on his watch that the real trouble had started.

_**·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·**_

_The infiltration had been quick. After weeks of planning and gathering information, Team Gai's appointed captain had finally given his rearing-to-go-already team the go. _

_"It's still too soon," muttered Neji that night as they crouched around the map spread out on the forest floor. He brushed aside the twigs and leaves that they had been using as markers. "We will go over the plan again."_

_Tenten groaned aloud, rolling off of her haunches and onto her bottom. _

_"Neji, we've been over this a thousand times. I'll be able to recite your entry and exit strategies in my sleep, let's stop fretting about the colour of your underwear when we go in and just go in already!" _

_Lee nodded enthusiastically. _

_"Indeed! The time is ripe!" He sprung to his feet. "The sun has set, the enemy is unawares, and Team Gai is prepared to strike hard and fast, paralysing our foes with the vigour of our youth, and the beautiful forest green of our matching undergarments!"_

_"Lee," said Neji coldly. "Sit down. We will each wear whichever underwear we choose to wear, and we will go over the plan until I am satisfied." He whirled on Tenten. "And you will cease encouraging him, am I clear?"_

_Tenten pouted, folding her arms. _

_"Crystal," she grumbled, her eyes fixed on her feet. "But you were the one who said we would go tonight in the first place. Make up your damn mind already…"_

_"Tenten," fumed an exasperated Neji. "I am not going to explain myself to you again. We need to be absolutely certain of every detail of the enemy's movements before we act. These are not people to be taken lightly!"_

_"But Neji!" pressed Lee. "Our most splendid team has a one hundred percent success rate, and that count includes those against stronger foes than these in which we've had no time to plan at all! I believe in the strength and abilities of my team mates to perform to the best of shinobi standards, and in our coherence as a team!" Lee leaned forward, his fists curled upon his knees as he kept his suddenly serious gaze on Neji. _

_"I agree," said Tenten eagerly. "Lee's right. You're over-thinking this, Neji. It's just a simple in-and-out retrieval mission. This is hardly a challenge for us."_

_Neji snapped his head towards Tenten, eyes searching her face. She glared back at him. He seemed shocked, and, she noted, confused. She knew why: when it came to arguments Tenten nearly always had Neji's back, and they would use their numbers to suppress Lee's enthusiasm when it posed as a risk to the mission. In this instance, however, Tenten agreed with Lee, which had ultimately thrown off what Neji had naturally assumed to be his given advantage. They all knew the plan, and they were a top-class team picked for this mission for not only their separate skills as shinobi, but as Lee had said their ability to work together. Tenten could see no reason in further prolonging the inevitable._

_"Now is as good a time as any, Neji," she added, her features firming with determination. "I say we go."_

_Neji glowered at her, but Tenten didn't yield. Lee's eyes snapped back and forth from one to the other, his brow slightly creased with surprise: he hadn't seen his team mates disagree before. Yet still, Tenten knew that despite being appointed captain for this mission, Neji would not go against the majority of the team when there was no good reason to. _

_So Neji consented, albeit extremely unwillingly. And, brimming with what hindsight proved to be over-confidence, Team Gai vanished into the night._

_**·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·**_

Tenten groaned aloud, dropping her forehead to her knees. "I'm sorry," she voiced a muffled apology into her pants. "You were right. You're always right."

___**·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·**_

_She doubled over, clutching the ferocious stitch pulling at her ribs. That had been close. Closing her eyes, she leaned against the face of the cliff and waited. Tenten wasn't surprised that she was the first to arrive at the designated meeting spot: in fact, she'd been expecting it. After all, everything was going according to plan. Though, she admitted with a shaky exhale, it had almost gotten rough near the end…_

_Tenten's fingers weaved their way under the collar of her shirt, closing about a small, hard object hanging from her neck, reassuring herself that it was still there. It was: mission successful. And so she waited. _

_About fifteen minutes later, a flurry of movement in the trees to her left caused Tenten to start. Curling her fingers about a kunai and already preparing a scolding on sneaking up on people, Tenten jerked about to face a winded and very surprised Neji. _

_"Neji?" she spluttered, her stomach clenching with an extremely unpleasant kind of astonishment. Not good._

_His eyes narrowed as he fought to regulate his breathing._

_"Lee?" he asked breathlessly. Tenten shook her head, pocketing her kunai, and Neji spat a quiet curse._

_"C'mon," said Tenten firmly, pushing past him as she moved back towards the foliage, dragging her fingers over the scroll at her hip. "We've got to-" Neji's hand suddenly clenched about her upper arm, stopping her dead. Tenten rounded on him. "Neji!" she hissed accusingly. "If you think I'm going to let you have us sit by while-"_

_"_You_," he said firmly. "Are going to stay here, while _I_ retrieve Lee." Tenten opened her mouth to object, but in one swift movement Neji had turned her around and pushed her back up against the cliff. His hands remained firmly on her arms, keeping her in place. The kunoichi gaped at him. He narrowed his eyes dangerously. "This is not up for discussion." _

_"But-"_

_"That's an order, Tenten! If I'm not back in five minutes take the scroll and go back to Konoha."_

_Tenten wrenched her arms free from his, shoving his shoulder aside as she made to pass him again. This time, however, Tenten stopped of her own accord. She bit her lip. As ferocious as the adrenaline bubbling through her veins was, Tenten couldn't deny logic: as she hesitated, it dampened the fire in her gut like a damp towel. She had the scroll and so couldn't risk being captured, and as a long-range fighter she would be of little use in the retrieval of her friend anyway. Neji would strike quick and hard and be out of the fray in an instant. She glanced guiltily back at her team mate. He tensed, watching her warily, gaging her reaction. And really, if she had listened to Neji in the beginning, she thought glumly, they might not even be in this mess. After a moment's pause, she nodded. Neji sighed in relief. _

_"Five minutes, Tenten."_

_"Don't be late," she muttered, her eyes serious as she raised them to meet his. He paused for a brief moment, and then he was gone. _

_**·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·**_

Tenten eventually grew bored of watching the ends of Neji's hair flutter as he breathed, and again she found her eyes on the sorry pile of limbs that was Rock Lee. Her expression sobered instantly.

___**·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·****·**_

_Three days. _

_Neji was refusing to speak to Lee, who was sulking at the back of the pack rather than springing eagerly thorough the branches before his team mates. Tenten found that she too was addressing Rock Lee a little harsher than she normally would, but she attributed this to her lack of sleep rather than a lingering grudge (she had gotten most of her anger out on him fairly quickly in the form of a lecture and a small beating). In all honestly she felt that Lee's own mortification and current state of misery was punishment enough without Neji turning back the clock to his 13-year-old self. _

_She stole a glance at the stony-faced shinobi skimming the branches beside her._

_If the bags under his eyes were anything to go by he had refused Lee the watch again. Tenten frowned._

_After they were sure that their pursuers were far behind them, Neji had allowed the team three hours to rest. Given that there were three of them, this meant two hours each while one took watch. Tenten had taken the first watch, but been woken with only an hour of sleep under her belt. Lee was passionately arguing against an impressively stoic Neji, and from what Tenten could make of it Neji was refusing to give up his watch to him on the grounds that "Lee was not to be trusted with the safety of the team". _

_"Tenten!" wailed Lee, genuinely horrified that their quarrel had gone so far as to actually rouse her. "I am so sorry to have woken you from your nap, I did not-"_

_"Go to sleep, Lee," said Neji quietly. "You're distracting me." _

_Lee cast a miserable glance over his shoulder. _

_"But Neji, it is my-"_

_"If I hand over the watch to you, Rock Lee," spat Neji. "One who prefers to put your lust for battle before the well-being of the team and the success of the mission, I would disgrace myself as a shinobi. Now go back to sleep." _

_A barked order from Tenten to stow their crap before she did it for them was enough to silence them. But an hour later, when she was gently shaken awake by an apologetic Lee explaining that it was time that they were moving, a quick visual once-over of her team confirmed that neither of the boys had slept. _

_They had continued this pattern for three days: constant travel, eating on the move, and stopping for three hours a night. _

_For three days, Neji and Lee had slept an hour apiece, if even, and it was beginning to show. And as for their acclaimed team dynamics… They seemed to be about ready to crumble. And Tenten, for one, wasn't going to sit back and let that happen._

_"Neji," whispered Tenten, casting a quick glance behind her to see if Lee was paying attention. He wasn't._

_Neji ignored her, and quickened his pace._

_Tenten bristled. That's how he's going to act, is it? Scowling, Tenten sped up until she was level with him again._

_"Neji," she hissed, louder this time. _

_"Tenten," he replied evenly, keeping his eyes fixed ahead. He was not going to make this easy, thought Tenten crossly. Stubborn ass._

_"I think Lee's had enough, don't you?"_

_Silence. _

_Tenten rolled her eyes._

_"Nej-"_

_"No I do not, Tenten. Rock Lee-" Tenten's heart sunk a little at his use of Lee's full name, which he only did on especially horrible occasions. "-endangered not only the mission's success, but your life and mine. I have half a mind to report him to the Hokage upon our return, if we even make it back-"_

_"Neji! He was only-"_

_"Only what? You know I'm right."_

_"He wasn't _endangering _anything, he was just-"_

_"This was supposed to be an infiltration mission, not a confrontational one. I cannot excuse his actions."_

_Tenten was flabbergasted. Neji hadn't been this block-headed in years._

_"He was just being Lee! You know, challenging the enemy for the good of youth, or whatever. You _know_ he-"_

_"I am done discussing this with you."_

_"Well I'm not!" Tenten said hotly. "From what I saw he was winning! You never know, it might have been to our advantage if you'd let him stay and fight! In fact we might not have at least one of these bastards following us right now-"_

_Neji's head snapped to face her, his eyes flaming with anger. _

_"You _saw_?! You were watching?"_

_Tenten's stomach dropped clean out of her body. Oops._

_"W-well," she stammered, averting her eyes. "I-"_

_"Tenten, you disobeyed a direct order. I told you to stay put and yet you came after me despite-"_

_"I came to help my friends," said Tenten furiously. "Because that's what being friends means, Neji! To be there when someone needs you!" _

_"And I needed you to stay out of it!" _

_Tenten's words died on her tongue. Neji was looking straight ahead again, but was doing something funny with his lips: chewing them and licking them, as if he'd said something he shouldn't have. Tenten stared._

_"Neji I-I couldn't," she whispered falteringly. "You were gone so long I thought that you and Lee might've-"_

_"And that," he said sharply. "Was exactly why I told you to leave. If we had been killed, or worse, that would mean that whomsoever we had been pitted against was more capable than both Lee and myself combined. And even you, Tenten, would struggle against such an adversary. To ensure- To ensure the success of the mission, you were ordered to leave us behind, and yet you failed to do so."_

_"But-"_

_"I'm disappointed, Tenten," said Neji in a hollow voice. Tenten trapped her cry of protest in the back of her throat. "You are usually so dependable. And yet for the entire course of this mission the only thing I have been able to count on you for is letting me- and in doing so letting the team- down." _

_That hurt. Tenten's eyes burned, and with a nasty shock she realised that she might have been on the verge of tears. She was tired, hungry, cold, and to top it all off emotionally exhausted from her team's constant bickering. She forgot that all of her team mates were dealing with these symptoms, not just her. Neji's words, though in hindsight untrue, had cut deep. She swallowed the painful lump in her throat with some difficulty, draining from her heart the sadness until all she was left with was anger. Anger she could deal with. Anger she could harness. Her thoughts cleared. And her thoughts were: Neji Hyuga was not worth the time of day._

_"So will you forgive Lee?" she said bitterly, abruptly changing the subject. Neji's eyes flickered regretfully as he registered her detached tone, maybe even reconsidering his cruel words, but Tenten missed it entirely. _

_After a moment of consideration, he answered._

_"I will think about it."_

_"Great," she spat. "That's all I wanted. Sorry to bother you," after a thought, she added, her voice dripping with scorn: "Captain." _

_And without giving him the chance to retort she'd dropped back alongside Lee, who had been so lost in his guilt that he hadn't even noticed the quiet exchange barely ten metres in front of him._

* * *

**_AN: _**_Ermagerhd, soooo longgggg. So much dramaaaaa, so many flashbackssssss._

_Neji. Stop being a dick. Yikes, you almost deserve what that crazy masked bitch did to you. Now go apologise to my babies Lee and 1010 before I bring her back with an anal plug._

_Also, big hugs and kisses to my new favourite people: __**purplepencils**__, __**shimmeringbluelight**__, __**One Sassy Cinderella**__, and __**372259**__ (three for you, __**372259**__. You go, __**372259**__!)_

_I just love you guys so I might I just- *ugly sobbing* Okay, next chapter. Go._

_(Also like please keep the reviews coming I'll do risqué things for them too... *bares ankles*)_


	5. Chapter 4

_"Fifteen minutes," came Neji's disembodied voice from somewhere up ahead._

_Tenten shoulders sagged in relief. The sun had set hours ago, and though they had been travelling nearly nonstop for days their enemy had yet to give up in their pursuit. _

_Slowing to a stop, Tenten crouched upon the branch like a crow, filing through the scrolls at her hip. Lee whizzed past her in a blur of green. He doubled back, swaying on a limb of the tree opposite. _

_"May I assist you, Tenten?" he asked earnestly. Tenten blinked up at him. Lines of exhaustion cut deep into the shinobi's face. Even his bright black eyes appeared dull, their usual cheery sparkle absent. She flashed him a grim smile of gratitude._

_"I'm alright, thanks Lee," she said, waving him onwards, though quite touched by his offer. "I'll only be a couple of minutes. Why don't you go on ahead and see if Neji needs help surveying the campsite?"_

_Lee smiled weakly at his teammate's attempted joke, before springing backwards into the trees and out of sight._

_Finally, she found what she was looking for, yanking the thin roll of paper free from her belt. Smoothing it out on the bark, Tenten's eyes mechanically scanned the lines of text. This should do nicely. However, she noted with a grimace, her eyes drawn to the gaping blank spaces that took up the majority of the sheet: they couldn't keep this up for much longer. She was running out. _

_A smear of blood and a puff of smoke later, Tenten was weaving through the treetops once again, a roll of wire whirring at her elbow as it tangled in the leaves and branches behind. This had originally been Neji's idea, but she immediately shoved that thought aside. She was in no mood to give the genius credit for anything other than assholery at the minute. And rightly so, she fumed, angling her stride to the left. Just because she hadn't stooped to the level of abandoning her friends suddenly she was a liability. Unbelievable! _

_Tenten grunted. Actually, she didn't want to think about _that_ either._

_And so for the next fifteen minutes Tenten wove an intricate web of wire through the woods, with her team mates' chakra signatures at the centre. She backed into the clearing, uncurling the last of the roll as she walked with one hand, the other fishing about in pouch strapped to her thigh for a kunai. She dropped to her haunches, plunging the kunai into the dirt, her fingers fumbling with the end of the wire. Tenten scowled. The sooner this mission was completed and she could rest properly the better: fatigue was beginning to take its toll._

_Eventually she managed to tie a convincing knot. Tenten plucked the taught wire experimentally. _

_"Hey, Lee," she threw over her shoulder, where her team shuffled about in the dark. "Would you mind-" The kunoichi started as the thin line of metal beneath her fingers suddenly buzzed. Her eyes snapped upwards, narrowing angrily as they fell upon a ghostly figure perched in a tree above. _

_"Yes, Tenten?" chirped Lee from somewhere behind her._

_"Nothing: got it covered," she growled, folding her arms and dropping sulkily onto her bottom. "I didn't ask _you_," she spat, as Neji dropped noiselessly from the tree. "I was talking to _Lee_."_

_Neji said nothing, pursing his lips and eyeing her reproachfully. _

_"Lee needs to rest," he said slowly. "He is on watch duty tonight, after all." He paused, as if waiting to hear her reaction. Perhaps he knew her a little too well, thought Tenten uncomfortably, since she was itching to drop a bitey comment. Instead, she allowed her eyes to burn into the dirt before her lap. It was a miracle the loose grains of soil didn't quiver in fear._

_Neji inhaled sharply, and walked over to his brooding team mate. He hovered awkwardly beside her shoulder for a moment._

_"Tenten," he said hesitantly, his eyes flickering towards Lee, whose quiet snores now rung through the dell. "I feel that I should express-"_

_"You've been expressing a lot of things lately," snapped Tenten. "Sure you're not sick or something?"_

_"Tenten please," he said quietly, lowering himself onto the ground before her. Tenten huffed, and swivelled about on the spot, her nose in the air. "Please give me the chance to apologise. For… The words that were spoken earlier."_

_Tenten turned her head towards him, her eyes owlish. Apologise? She hadn't known the word was even in his vocabulary. Then she remembered that she hated him and promptly jerked her head back around again. Neji hadn't noticed: his eyes were lingering somewhere near his knees, nearly hidden behind the fall of his long, dark hair. _

_However, as a silence stretched between them, Tenten found it harder and harder to hold onto her grudge towards the career-long friend kneeling beside her, especially with that distinct aura of misery radiating from him. She screwed up her face, furious with herself as she felt her heart melting just a little- no! She was angry at him._

_"That was pathetic," she muttered. Neji's eyes flew to the back of her head. Heaving a sigh, Tenten shuffled around to face him. He was glaring at her now. Her lips twisted into a frown. "You're really terrible at apologies, you know that?"_

_Neji's brow creased slightly, the only indication that he was feverishly racking his brains for the correct words. This Tenten noticed with a hint of amusement. _

_"I regret what was said earlier," he began falteringly, his cheeks darkening with- anger or embarrassment? Tenten could only assume it was a very satisfying mixture of the two. "I was angry. After all, you disobeyed a direct order and-" His jaw snapped shut as Tenten's charka flared._

_"Neji, that was even worse! Can't you just say 'sorry', like a normal human being?"_

_"Sorry!" he hissed angrily, his fists clenching in his lap._

_"You have to mean it!" whispered Tenten furiously. Her eyes flashed with rage, and she opened her mouth to tell him just where he could shove the next phony apology he dropped on her, but thought better of it: Lee was asleep, and they had no right to wake him with a full-scale blow out. _

_"And what makes you think I don't?" Neji said coldly, instantly ruffling at her accusatory tone. "I have tried apologising to you three times now: surely you can read into that a little!" _

_Tenten rolled her eyes, sighing impatiently. _

_"You're absolutely exhausting," she grumbled. The kunoichi stared hard at the kunai in the ground, almost wishing that it would tremor with an enemy presence so that she didn't have to put up with Neji Hyuga's emotional constipation. _

_"Hn," he growled, folding his arms sulkily. _

_The silence that followed seemed to douse Neji's anger, and Tenten was completely unprepared for the gentleness of his tone:_

_"I dislike fighting with you, Tenten."_

_Her startled eyes widened further when they collided with Neji's, which were indeed wavering with guilt to the extent that a verbal apology was suddenly almost excessive. Her mouth opened slightly, and her chest tightened when she realised that she knew how terrible her team mate was with words and that he was, actually, trying to say sorry. _

_And so, flabbergasted at how soft-hearted she was, Tenten exhaled heavily and turned back to face her fellow shinobi._

_"I don't like fighting with you either," she admitted glumly. Though teetering on the edge of forgiveness, the kunoichi wasn't quite ready to look at him just yet. _

_"I hope you know that you aren't undependable, without me having to tell you," said Neji quietly. "You have never once let the team, or me, down."_

_Tenten fidgeted bashfully._

_"Hn," she mumbled, taking a leaf out of Neji's book for a change._

_"And," he continued. "That I only said what I said because I was worried."_

_Tenten actually laughed aloud at that. _

_"Worried?" she mused. "You?" Tenten blanched when she noted the seriousness in his eyes. "Really?" she asked incredulously. "What on earth for?"_

_Neji looked pensively into the trees for a time before answering._

_"Well," he said wryly. "Despite what others may think I am not impervious to the notion that losing a team mate is distressing."_

_"You were worried," repeated Tenten carefully, trying to make sense of his words. "Because you thought that I- that one of us might get hurt?"_

_Neji nodded slowly. Tenten's eyebrows disappeared beneath her headband._

_"And so your solution," she continued. "Was to ensure the safety of the mission and the remainder of your team, before rushing off to rescue the damsel in distress and save the day all by yourself? That was very noble, Neji." Neji nodded again, then scowled when he realised she was making fun of him. But she wasn't finished yet. "You know," Tenten added, half-jokingly. "You should be careful of that hero complex of yours. It might get you killed one day." _

_"I'm not afraid to die protecting those I care about," he muttered, his eyes darkening thoughtfully._

_"That doesn't mean that you have to needlessly throw away your life defending them," insisted Tenten, regarding him curiously now. Neji Hyuga with feelings. Now, this was interesting. Perhaps he was unwittingly lowering barriers due to his exhaustion. If this was the case, suddenly Tenten was almost thankful for their pursuers' vivaciousness for providing her with such valuable insight into her team mate's inner-most thoughts. "Some of them can even take care of themselves, you know," she added, her thoughts drifting to Hinata. The timid, seemingly-fragile kunouchi had really taken strides in the last couple of years, and Tenten would now hate to be on the receiving end of any one of her attacks._

_"Not all of them are you, Tenten," said Neji, so softly that Tenten nearly missed the words. Me? She thought dizzily, heat creeping into her cheeks._

_"W-well," she spluttered, scrambling to find her train of thought again. Neji cast her a bemused glance. And then the full implication of what he was saying hit her like a cart of bricks: Neji was willing to die for his friends (she furiously ignored the little voice that whispered "for _me_"), and Tenten found that that didn't sit well with her. Not one bit. _

_"Haven't you thought about how selfish that is?" said the kunoichi in a small voice. Neji whirled on her._

_"Selfish?!" he repeated, incredulous. "It's the exact _opposite_ of-"_

_"No, it's selfish!" pressed Tenten, suddenly angry again. Her eyes bored into his. Neji blinked at her, confusion creasing his features. "You haven't taken into consideration that these people you care about might care about you as well," she babbled. Judging by the hotness of her cheeks, thought Tenten despairingly, she must be red as a beet by now. But she continued anyway. It was important that he understood this. "And that you carelessly tossing away your life for them, though it might save them in the short term and make you feel better, would eventually kill them? How would you feel knowing that someone you loved had died, and not only that, but died trying to protect you? Have you thought about how much pain you would cause by sacrificing yourself?"_

_Neji was gaping at her now. Judging by his numb expression, the thought hadn't even crossed his mind. Good, she thought sternly. Now he'll think before he throws himself into the fray. _

_"Someone... You loved," he echoed hollowly. His eyes widened a fraction._

_Tenten could have howled in frustration. _That_ was all he took out of her speech!? Actually, to tell the truth, she wasn't sure how the word 'love' had crept in there, but that wasn't important. So she opened her mouth to explain again to the thick-skulled so-called genius the point of her ramble, but she stopped dead when she noticed that Neji was staring at her with a very odd expression on his face. Asides from the fact that it was odd to see _any_ expression on his face, this one really had Tenten on edge. There was a funny look in his eyes that made her heart and stomach engage in a battle of acrobatics; made the blood roar in her ears and sweat to bead on the back of her neck and her brain to feel as though it was made of cotton. And for the life of her, she didn't know why. And it scared the hell out of her._

_Then, the most wonderfully coherent thought occurred to her._

_"You have to be up in an hour," Tenten squeaked, jerking her attention back to the kunai. "You'd better get some sleep, Neji." His name felt strange on her tongue, and when her heart started the run-up to the springboard again she fought it with every fibre of her consciousness. So busy was Tenten with trying to regain her composure that she completely missed what he had said._

_"Sorry?" she asked, blinking stupidly at him. Neji lips twitched a wry smile. And she blushed again. Damnnit! What was going on?_

_"I said that actually, Tenten," he repeated musingly. "Your hour is up. It's my watch." _

_Tenten gawked at him, horrified. Had she kept Neji from that precious hour of sleep that he so desperately needed by babbling about selfishness? The irony struck her like a gong._

_He waved away her stammered apologies. _

_"It doesn't matter," he said lightly. "I am accustomed to little sleep anyway. Goodnight, Tenten." And then he gave her that infuriatingly baffling look again and Tenten muttered something in reply (she had no idea what), before drifting over to the vacant sleeping bag wondering which she liked better: emotionally constipated Neji, or Neji with emotional diarrhoea._

**_·······················································_**

BANG.

Tenten was violently wrenched out of her thoughts by a distant noise. Her blood ran cold as the horribly familiar echo of footfalls rang about the cell. And it was then that she remembered about her shoes. Panic flared in her chest.

"Neji!" she hissed. His eyes snapped open instantly. Tenten felt that her relief must have almost been palpable.

Neji tensed in alarm at the swiftly loudening slap of feet on stone, and jerked forwards. Tenten was already scrambling across the floor, stretching as far as her chains would allow her.

"Quick," His voice was strained as he threw his wrists towards her. He was obviously in agony, but Tenten didn't have time to be careful. Some part of her cried as she all but tore her shoes from his bruised wrists, and the kunoichi desperately tried to ignore the small sound that escaped his throat as she did so. She clumsily stuffed her feet back into her shoes, just as Neji jettisoned himself back across the room.

A deafening grating sound filled her ears and her gut twisted in unpleasant surprise she found herself being dragged up onto her feet: her chains were shortening again, her arms being pulled above her head and her ankles drawn flush with the wall. A grunt of pain told her that the same had just occurred to Neji, and assumedly to Lee as well.

The door was thrown open with wall-shuddering force.

Tenten squeezed her eyes shut with anticipation. Yellow light suddenly glowed through her eyelids. Wincingly, she opened her eyes.

The masked woman was back.

A lantern hung on her elbow again, but what caused a chill of dread to run up Tenten's spine was the bucket filled to the brim with liquid in her other hand.

The woman's laughter filled the cell.

"There's no need to look so concerned," she said innocently. "It's only water." She raised the bucket effortlessly, its contents sloshing as she did so.

Neji and Tenten exchanged a dark glance: neither was convinced.

"Who's thirsty?" asked the woman brightly, depositing the lantern on the floor. Tenten nearly scoffed: that woman was madder than they thought she was if she thought that either of them was stupid enough to drink that... Whatever it was. Her heart hammered against her ribs as the woman turned towards her. "Ladies first then, is it?"

Tenten steeled herself, trying her best to fix the woman with a menacing look straight in the eye, but found her gaze wandering fearfully to the bucket instead.

The mask woman tittered ominously, and Tenten jerked her eyes upwards to find herself looking straight into two black, bottomless holes.

"Open up," whispered the woman. Tenten's throat tightened when she noticed that the woman held a full cup of the substance in her black-clad fingers, curling them about the wooden rim like spider's legs. The Konoha kunoichi shivered, pressing her lips firmly together, and jerked her chin away from the looming cup.

"No?" asked the woman, mock-hurt lacing her voice. "Are you sure?" Her tone switched alarmingly quickly: too much so for Tenten to properly brace herself for what was about to occur. "Good," she hissed suddenly.

Tenten yelped in protest as the woman's fingers dug into her cheeks, her jaw abruptly wrenched open. She tried tossing her head to break free, but the woman's grip was like steel. The kunoichi's eyes burned in frustration. Then the cup was clinking against her teeth and its contents spilled onto her tongue. She shuddered: the liquid was freezing. Then her jaw was being forced shut again, and held in place. Tenten felt a surge of premature victory: how could the woman make her swallow? Two of the woman's fingers closed about her nostrils, and Tenten's eyes flew open in terror.

"Swallow," snarled the woman, leaning forward so that the mask filled the kunoichi's vision.

The panic roaring through her system only made the need to breathe overwhelm her faster, and it wasn't long before Tenten's head began to pound and her vision to flicker. There was a painful tightening in her chest, as if she were a clock being wound too tightly. Still, she stubbornly refused to swallow the tasteless substance swilling about in her mouth.

Air. She needed air. But she couldn't breathe.

Time slowed to a standstill. Tenten's eyes rolled back into her head, her senses retracting until all she could feel was a sharp, buzzing ache in the very centre of her skull. And that sensation was lessening by the second.

"Swallow," chanted the woman distantly. "Swallow, swallow, swallow…"

In the battle between reflex and willpower, it was rare for willpower to come out on top.

"Swallow, swallow, swallow…"

She obeyed, shivering as the chilly liquid squeezed down her throat.

Then the woman's hands were gone and air rushed back into her burning lungs. Tenten gasped, her chest heaving as she gulped desperately at the stale air, choking a little on the residual liquid caught in the back of her throat. Through her coughing and wheezing, Tenten barely registered the fact that someone was patting her cheek.

"Good girl," crooned the woman. "That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

Then she was gone: Tenten was left hanging limply from her shackles, spluttering as she tried desperately to clear her head. Despair settled in the pit of her stomach. Whatever horrible drug the drink had contained, surely now it was seeping through her system, slowly taking hold… Bitterly disappointed in herself, Tenten raised her eyes shamefully to those of her team mate across the way.

Rather than scorn or anger, however, as she was expecting to see, Tenten's heart fluttered guiltily when all she saw was unrestrained concern. Sorry, she mouthed to him, grimacing. Neji shook his head: a small, jerky movement. His eyes remained fixed on hers, even as the woman approached him with another full cup.

"Your turn, handsome," purred the masked woman.

* * *

**AN:** _Well. I don't know what to say. It's half past five in the morning. Again._

_I promised myself I wouldn't 614. I 614ed._

"You should be careful of that hero complex of yours. It might get you killed one day."

_AUGH I AM SO SORRY YOU GUYS_

_More bone-crushing scary-aunty hugs to __**One Sassy Cinderella**__, __**372259, rosieh, shimmeringbluelight**__, __**purplepencils**__, and __**dianalovely1995**_

_You are all heart-warmingly awesome and I love you._

_Keep the reviews flowing, my dearest treasures._


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